During the off-season, Mizzou strength coach Pat Ivey turned down a chance to move on to the NFL to stay in Columbia. This summer, Ivey has worked daily with the Tiger football team in preparation for a much-anticipated 2007 season. Ivey took some time to talk about the conditioning program with PowerMizzou.com this week.

I know at this time of year, everyone is optimistic, but what is your overall assessment of what you've seen out of the guys this summer?

PI: "There is a growing confidence. The work ethic has always been really good, the attitude to show up every day, outwork myself and outperform myself, compete with each other has improved every year. That continues to get better, team morale continues to improve and the belief and the level of expectancy is probably at an all-time high."

Last year, coach Pinkel said the turnout was pretty much at 100 percent. How has it been so far this year?

PI: "Same thing this year. We have guys that, our seniors every year have a goal in mind in what they want to accomplish. This year more than ever, these guys are really serious about being champions. They believe in order to be champions, you have to outwork other people. That makes my job easy when seniors assume the leadership role, then all I have to do is put a program together."

You mentioned the injured players. Are you happy with where the health is on the team? Will everybody be ready to go when camp opens?

PI: "Everybody will be ready to go at camp. Bryan Mann is one of our assistants, he is one of the brightest strength coaches I have ever been around. He handles all of our injured guys one on one, writing whatever program--someone coming off a surgery or having some sort of issue we're working around, Brian writes those."

We all know about some of the older guys, the established guys, the leaders. But of the newcomers, how many of those guys have been in and which ones have really impressed you?

PI: "In this case, I don't know if I can point out one indidual that is coming in above the rest, What I can say is this class has come in in better shape and cardiovascular shape than the previous classes. I believe they're stronger, I cannot tell you if they're faster because we haven't tested those guys, but usually someone who's in shape cardiovascularly and strong, usually that translates pretty significantly to having good speed."